Writing Problems: Keeping the wilderness alive

Kunitz, van Gogh, Parker, "Take Hold of It"

Being able to write poetry, Stanley Kunitz tells us, means being aware of the wilderness within us that will never be tamed. My wilderness lives in the space of a contradiction: I have an introverted, socially anxious, outside presence; while inside I carry a deep well of feeling, unknown and unaware sometimes even to myself. My younger life was a const…